Tuesday, 14 August 2012

CB40, UB40

Notts one-day record: hang your heads

The last time Nottinghamshire were at Lord’s for a domestic
limited overs final was the Benson & Hedges Cup victory over Essex – secured with a last-ball Eddie Hemmings squirt to the Tavern boundary – on
15 July
1989, six months before the birth of new England debutant and current Outlaw, James Taylor. It
is a truly appalling statistic.

Since that date, there have been some 36 domestic finals (the
B&H was discontinued in 2002) and every
other county has appeared in at least one. Middlesex are perhaps the next
worst performers – particularly since, like Notts, they play at a Test match
venue, with the financial and other advantages that brings – their most recent appearance being just a couple of months later.

To put Notts’ (and Middlesex’s) feat in some kind of perspective, over the same
period Warwickshire have made 10 trips to St John’s
Wood, Lancashire 9. Even Notts’ traditional
regional rivals-cum-‘feeder clubs’ have bobbed down the M1 relatively
frequently: Northamptonshire, statistically the
least successful county, have been 4 times; Leicestershire have had 3 Big
Days Out (not to mention their record three T20 titles); even Derbyshire,
statistically the second worst county, the worst since World War II, have been
to a couple of Lord’s finals.

Anyway, without seeking to work out why this might have been, here is the list of finalists since Notts were last there,
with the number of victories in brackets: